How The Balance Of Power In World Football Is Changing
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Football is the most popular sport in the world, but for the last 130 years, it has been dominated by two continents - Europe and South America - that are home to less than 15% of the world's population.
They have won all the FIFA World Cups, had all the best players, and have largely come to define the sport - but for the first time, due to factors both within and outside of the game, that could all be about to change.
So in this video, HITC Sevens looks at the prospects of a realignment of world football, the factors likely to bring such a change about, and the future of the planet and of football alike.
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I always say this, but I genuinely think there is NO way San Marino is ACTUALLY the worst team in the world. Their ranking is just affected by the fact that they’re surrounded by powerhouses that destroy them every game. San Marino would comfortably beat some national teams in the Caribbean, Africa and Oceania 100%
Agree 100%
They are a micro nation. They might beat some of the other micro nations in the Carribean and Oceania. No micro nations exist in Africa though.
Even in a micro nation World Cup let’s say all fifa nations with less than 100,000 people. They would be amongst the worst 3 teams. That’s just what happen when you only have a 30,000 population and unlike the Carribean islands you don’t have big diaspora abroad eligible to play for you also. Montserrat for example have the lowest population of any fifa member (I think) with less than 5000 people. But they would be heavy favourites against San Marino as virtually their entire squad is made up of people playing in England including a number of players in league 1 so of which has also played at higher levels in the past.
This is why I believe there should be a separate WC for the lowest ranked teams. Imagine a competition for teams like San Marino and Cambodia 😂and the winner gets qualification into the main WC or playoffs at least
Probably a dumb idea but at least micro nations in Europe can show that they’re not really as bad as people think against teams like St Vincent
No they wouldnt they played Saint Lucia recently twice and lost and drew
@@siler22 that’s why I said some. They surely would beat teams like St Kitts or Vanuatu
As Japanese we were fortunate enough because we started our domestic football league before all this inflation of transfer markets. There’s no way we brought player like Zico nowadays. Also we quickly figured out that bringing high level players doesn’t contribute to national team, and focused more on next generation training.
イニエスタは？
What's your opinion on the Japanese women's team?
Hahaha y’all suck and lost to Iraq
@@user-cy5ys6zp2qあれは楽天が強すぎた
As a Venezuelan you have no idea how big this change of momentum feels, we are mainly a baseball country, at much we have focused on developing football on our country for the past 20 years and know we are over countries like Brazil and Chile on the hardest world cup qualifiers in the world, for the first time the other teams are staring to respect us.
Ojalá clasifiquen
@@omessiasdogol gracias!
Todos queremos que Venezuela clasifique 🇦🇷🫂
Solo faltan ustedes para decir que todos los paises de Sudamerica fueron a un mundial, al menos una vez.
Pero los otros paises no se los van a poner facil, ustedes tienen que ganarselo, Suerte..
You must have a short-term memory. Europe has the hardest world cup qualifiers.
This is literally why I play Football Manager. I love seeing how crazy the world becomes after 10, 20, and 30+ years. I love having a hand in said chaos.
I do not know what the future has in store for football, but I hope it never stops being the chaotic, unpredictable, ever-changing, hope-destroying, nerve-fraying sport it currently is.
Took me 50 years to get ireland top 10 in european leagues. Still trying to win the champions
@@Leonardohummelhow many UCLs did Bohemian or Derry win
@@bababababababa6124 lol they go down divisións and up again all the time, also they do very poorly in Europe and thats why we can't have a better European coeficient
@@Leonardohummel make sure you're buying as many wonderkids as you possibly can and loaning them to other irish clubs. i'm talking like at least 5 at each club
It’s not chaotic and it is predictable. Europe will only get more dominant over time. Wanna talk reality (sounds harsh and I’m a big meanie I know) but here’s reality. Canada and America don’t care about football. Mexico (and I’ll combine that with all of Asia) are about 5‘5“. That’s cool for a number 10 or a tricky winger but you’re not winning a World Cup with CB‘s and goalkeepers that aren’t even 6ft tall. Africa has no money. And corruption will and has already deteriorated South America to the point where they’re falling further behind Europe. Yes I know Argentina won the WC but in the 70‘s and even 80‘s the leagues were comparable. They’re not close anymore and their players are leaving you get and younger. Not to mention immigration. Nobody is trying to immigrate to Africa, South America etc. The divide is only going to get bigger. This is „content“. Sorry for the dose of real facts
13:45 as Argentinian, as well of most South américan countries football is always present when we grow up. I am 34 a I dont play anymore but when I was young we played every day, in school between breaks, after school, saturdays and sundays. And its been like that for everyone no matter social background.
We all had that one teamate we all thought would play profesional, as long as it that way there will always be new world class players.
football is pretty much Argentinian's hobby.
@@halamadridpatriotsnationgo1057It is not a hobby, it is part of the fabric of our lives. Pretty much.
Alfie with the gold standard for international football content, as per usual
Germany is a Man United of national team.
Full of past glories. Reached the peak of its power around 10 years ago before falling off real hard in an unrecognizable way and is still falling.
That's correct. And you can't expect them to rise up unless they pretty much change the whole team.
They will be back…. My grandad always said “never write off the Germans”
@@mattdog1982 Really hope they do. I am a die hard germany fan. And the last 8 years have been so painful 😞
Right now, Argentina is Manchester City, Brazil is FC Barcelona, Uruguay is Liverpool and Italy is Juventus.
@@halamadridpatriotsnationgo1057i wouldn't say Brazil is Barca, more like Chelsea or Juventus. I'd say Netherlands is Barca
although i'm late to this sport (started watching during 2022 WC), I feel like it's an exciting time to watch. I fell in love with the Moroccan and Croatian NT last year and now I'm addicted. I really hope I can see an African team win in my lifetime
Better late than never. Welcome to the beautiful game!
@@mr.punkie5872 Thank you!
@@believeinbuffalo bro where are you from
@@user-nl1hk5pu8mUSA
Japan in past few years has been terrific I think I'm gonna support them for next world cup edition. They're humble players and I wish them very best for every championship they're going to play. ❤💙
More countries are pouring money to both the men’s and women’s game. Both world cups are an example of that as we saw Morocco and Japan push in the men’s World Cup and Australia make a deep run in the women’s game. Excited seeing the growth of football.
Morocco rely on imigrant who born in Europe.
“Let’s not even get started with Germany” yeah that about sums up Germany as a footballing nation at the moment
our youth are looking decent, the senior team is the only German squad in shambles.
Sup m8
@@mishynaofficial ?
@@JohanCruyff-the-Dutch-GOAT Germany performed so much better this year
@@mishynaofficial yeah they did, 7 months ago ballers like wirtz wasn’t around!
In fairness: almost every Montserrat player was born in England, so the population of the island itself is irrelevant
Another sign is the talk of unification between CONCACAF and CONMEBOL. Ironically, this re-emerged thanked to the creation of UEFA Nations League and Europe’s increasing unwillingness to accept South Americans playing in their leagues.
They will merge into one confederation
@@Ian1-ff3vi the issue is money. Concacaf has the American, Canadian, and Mexican economics. Having that trickle down to South America could be a game changer.
That's how bussiness work my dude
@@Ian1-ff3vi If they have loved, Europe should have given South American nations chance to play in Nations League, not buying players only. Instead the creation of Nations League was intended to limit South American countries from playing.
@@Ian1-ff3vi You should look at the South American eyes rather than what you are assuming.
South Americans believed that Europe's attempt to create the Nations League was to disable South American national teams from playing competitively. The fact that Nations League format overlapped with FIFA friendlies made South American resentment to occur because South America, with only 10 countries, could not afford to form a Nations League. CONMEBOL didn't even want unity with CONCACAF at the first glance, but UEFA's Nations League system suddenly raised the stake of unity between North and South America.
If you said about buying South American players then it is so easy to buy. The South Americans, however, demand their national teams to be allowed playing with Europe's big guns and Europe has prevented it from happening.
There are several surprising results for the minnows you missed in this video:
1.In UEFA club competitions, lesser sides like two Serbian minnows (TSC and Cukaricki) or Rakow Czestochowa did managed to reach the group stage, while Union Saint Gilloise and Bodo/Glimt reached as far as quarterfinal. Even the Faroese side Klaksvik managed to beat the likes of Ferencvaros, Hacken, and Olimpija Ljubljana.
2.Pakistan, Nepal, and Afghanistan making their debuts in World Cup second qualifying rounds for Asian proper.
3.The last Women's World Cup also had a notable surprises. Traditional powerhouses like Brazil, Germany, and Canada were dumped out in group stage, while USWNT crashed out in Round of 16. Lesser sides such as Morocco, Colombia, and South Africa managed to reach the knockout stages, with Colombia making all the way to the quarterfinal and the co-host Australia reaching the semifinal.
4.Estonia was also considered a honorable mentions. Though they finished last in group without a single win, they were somehow went to the playoffs due to the Nations League results.
People always forget Croatia.
I mean. Get independent in 1992, qualify for Euro 1996 beat previous champions Denmark and Turkey, then beat Germamy and Netherlands at World Cup. What a badass debut.
And 20 years later my Croatia beat Argentina and Nigeria, again win Denmark and host Russia on penalties, beat England in extra-time and reach a final against France.
@@danielm6319 In 1990s, there was Bulgaria, who were a big underdogs. The 1994 World Cup was a notorious success for the Bulgarian Football. After eliminating future host of the World Cup (and the winners) France in the very last minute of the final day of qualifiers, the likes of Hristo Stoichkov, Yordan Letchkov, Ljuboslav Penev, and so on, became the real dark horse, beating a severely weakened Argentina without Diego Maradona to finish 2nd, despite losing 0-3 to debutants Nigeria on the first match, then proceeded to beat Mexico on penalties and title holders Germany. Eventually, they only finished 4th due to the losses against Italy and fellow dark horses Sweden.
But now, Bulgaria is shambles. They had a bad records in major tournaments since then, having only qualified for Euro 2004 and getting embarrassed in the group stage without a single point, and this year was even catastrophic without a single win, although they could salvage a narrow wins on the last 2 games of Euro 2024 qualifiers.
No one, but no one cares about the Womens' world cup. It's not the same sport. Women don't care about it. Stop trying to make the rest of us do it for them.
TSC aren't really minnows as their transfermarkt value is €30m plus they beat Partizan 4-0. Also they were able to attract two top players in Lokomotiv Moscow and Krylia Sovetov due to their ambitions.
Although Japan is on the rise, South Korea has provided the most significant footballers from Asia thus far: Cha Bum and Park to Son, Kim Min Jae, and now Kang-In...
That korean guy from wolves
@@nayeemhasan2713 lol
Cha Bum was so good even one of the most known goalkeepers such as Oliver Kahn asked him for an autograph. This was surprising, bc Olive Kahn was the Zlatan version of goalkeepers. He’s an ignorant, angry, hard headed, and self centered goalkeeper and to ask Cha Bum for an autograph is pretty impressive. He was also named as the best Asian player of the century in 1999.
@@nayeemhasan2713Hwang Hee-Chan!
Yeah but Japan has better balance and squad depth
Once Pep made mastered how to deliver system based football efficiently, the collapse of individuality in football hurt the powerhouses more. The powerhouse countries had been far more capable of developing higher quality individuals who won them games. With the rise of systems, those types have become deemphasized, which has hurt the powerhouse nations even more than lesser ones. Now, all a minnow needs to do is find a coach with an idea for a system, drill the players in it like mad and he can get them to start doing giant killings... Because the giants' key advantage is now gone.
Actually no, they just stoped producing even semi decent players. I mean just look at Italy, 15-20 years ago maybe just one or two of these players would make it to the NT.
Wrong take, Pep didn't invented systems in football! You started watching in 2010??
Over 80% of that Moroccan side were born in either Spain, France, Netherlands or Belgium. World football is changing but it’s not positively. Minnows like Morocco just rely on European academies to produce talent, they don’t do anything. Even the minority native talent leaves immediately for a European academy. Coaches in Morocco come back to see French, Spanish, Dutch and Belgian talent.
IT WAS JUHAN CRUYFF
As a Moroccan, I was quite glad that our national teams in both gender have done an exceptional job. However we would love to become better and the current scope of investment has to be doubled. I am glad that Fouzi Lekjaa was the President of FRMF but we would love to have greater improvement.
I mean, most moroccan players learned to play and pmayed in youth teams in europe. It was more about immigration the local investment in the sport. Same with Ghana, Senegal and some other teams
Thanks to immigrants instead of Fouzi'
@@houzoud2416its funny because bono the goal keeper kicked spain out was a pure moroccan product, and the goal in the QF and the assist one of them is a local moroccan player and the scorer is a product of the football acedemy.
@@konradvonschnitzeldorf6506 It's true that most of the players of these teams are developed in France but France benefit from it too
The best way for the africans nations is using both more investing in youth accademies and benifite from the europe players
Hoping Australia does well in the future. Our time is long overdue.
Edit: I think it can happen in the end. Australians are increasingly exposed to football (soccer here) and we've got lots of young talent - think Kuol at Newcastle and Irankunda soon to go to Bayern. The women have really paved the way despite the dominance of rugby league, AFL and to some extent cricket. Excited for the future!
It is tricky in Australia. The media does not cover the sport unless it is the english premier, the AFL and rugby fans continuously attack football on any social media post to try and discredit the game and stop any momentum and the federal government funds ever other sport except football. So football is really against it. The fact we have qualified for each world cup since 2006 is amazing. Especially when you consider the A League salary caps are $3million australaian
How does Australians feel about Scotland poaching lyndon Dykes. I feel Scotland messed up not capping souter
@@adampark4238Used to it. Christian Vieri back in the day. Pissed with Italy in general to be fair 2006 wc
@@mitchellsmith300 Dykes has done well for us we just need to get the right player to play of him.
I'm a Motherwell fan so love Scott McDonald even though he played for one of the old firm
Considering FIFA have made it clear that Australia will never host a mens world cup I dont think so.
I just have to say I'm very grateful that you take the time to make these well researched and rigorous videos. Without them, there would be somewhat of a void in the world of football coverage. Keep up the great work man
HITC the effort you put into this channel is truly amazing.
The only thing I would have added would have been the impact of immigration on player development with non-traditional football nations. For example, Alphonso Davies, the star left-back from Canada was born in a refugee camp in Ghana, and immigrated to Canada at the age of 5. How many future stars may not be born in the country they represent?
Hey Alfie, I've been watching your vids for a while. Would you be able to look into the Nigerian national team because they're going through something similar to Norway in which you already done a video on. With the players that they have, many people would think that they have a golden generation coming up but recent results haven't been good. So far in qualifiers for the 2026 WC they drew their first 2 games against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, meanwhile they have the 10th most expensive squad in the world when it comes to player values and the most expensive African squad.
And as many people already know, the Super Eagles are overloaded in the attacking position with top attackers in form in top leagues around Europe. You made a video about biggest underachievers in football and Nigeria was on that list and I can confidently say that Nigeria are the biggest underachievers in African football by far as they should be head to head with Senegal and Morocco but they're not.
I know Alfie was joking about Alaska, but Obed Vargas from Anchorage is looking like a real talent, and goalkeeper Hunter Sulte is still very young but could potentially grow into a decent player too. Alaska being a cold place where basketball and hockey tend to dominate, I’d imagine their best chance to develop more soccer talents would be thru futsal.
Footballs probably bigger in alaska than basketball
Video Idea: The expansion of the World Cup to include 48 teams, and it's impact, for better or worse, on the sport.
The good: it helps smaller/less successful countries qualify for the tournament that otherwise would never have any chance of even touching the WC trophy
The cons: it basically rules out any country that isn’t in Europe, North America, East Asia or some wealthy petro-state in the Middle East from ever hosting the event due to the increased stadium requirements and infrastructure needed to accommodate all 48 teams and their fans
The worst thing about it from an entertainment perspective isn't the quality of the extra 16 teams but the format. 72 games just to knock 16 of the 48 teams out will be painfully boring.
@@mnm5165if we weren’t insistent on hosting it in countries that are together, we could just host groups A-D in Argentina. E-H in South Africa. And I-L in Switzerland. Then a week later the KO games can all be hosted in another country. Playing on the same days and Time zones means we can have like 12 hours of football every day in the group stages. Never happening but better than just rotating between USA, Saudi Arabia, a Western European country, and China all the time.
brilliant work again Alfie. i'm American, and one of my personal traditions is to fire up an old copy of Madden 2008 and simulate a franchise while watching Turkey Day games. Football Manager basically. in a small way you can see the larger points that your video makes
which is why i think Central America has the most potential to produce a winning team if economic and criminal elements can be reeled in. i was amazed to learn that the majority of Honduras's starters play in Europe. this has never really happened before, many of the 2010/2014 guys played in the US or Mexico or at home (with a few in Paraguay which was interesting). these places have infrastructures for leagues, no matter how poor quality it is, this isn't just popping out oil money these have history. we've seen Costa Rica reach the quarterfinals before. CONCACAF is really benefitting from the Nations League set up, we are seeing stronger teams form (Jamaica's PL contingent)
Ps2 madden 08?
love from India 🇮🇳
the only thing Japan is 'ahead of schedule' on is running out of young people, so no they won't ever have 100 professional clubs
Never too late to sign up grandpas for the teams 😂
You should do a follow up to What is going on with Australain Football. We are about to launch a second tier, where if it proves to be feasible, austrlaia will have promotion and relegation for the first time. You can also discuss the dichotomy betweem how the meida treats the matildas compared with the socceroos, how the media doesn't cover the A League (including the upcoming second tier) yet covers the premier league and how AFL and rugby fans continously attack any social media post about football to try and discredit the game and stop any momentum. Also, how our federal government wont put any money into the game and our socceroos have to hire a rugby pitch to train, yet fund everyother sport.... i couod go on
I'd suggest, for a start. It might be better for your argument, if you learned how to construct a sentence and use the period (or full stop) key.
Surprising how Germany actually STILL has an insane team with big stars!
Yes austria played with bundesliga Player that played in weak teams
The national team is trash, loses to countries like Poland, Mexico, Korea, Macedonia now. If the players were talented, they wouldn’t be so beatable without foreigners carrying them
Surprising how Germany actually STILL has a trash team with big stars!*
There, fixed it for you
@@uhm175 yeah that’s what I meant. The video is focusing on how so many once great times now don’t have stars anymore… France, England, brasil etc
But Germany STILL has big players
That can’t do anything
Just shows how important the right balance and chemistry is. The issue is that 1. a lot of players are actually overrated and are not that "world class" as they think or they only function in their clubs with their great teammates (Kimmich, Goretzka, Sane, Havertz, Rüdiger, Gündogan), 2. we don't have much up the sleeve because our youth system focused too much on players that are flexible, adaptable and good in positional play and technical abilites. We have a lot of technically gifted, offensive minded players that are kinda samey but we lack players with mentality and with outstanding creativity to do something out of the ordinary AND we lack classic strikers and classic defenders. Our best classic striker (Füllkrug) is far from being on a level with other top strikers and our defenders can play a good ball but they can't defend reliably. 3rd problem would be that there seems to be something wrong with the current hierarchy and chemistry, as the lack of motivation and leadership is just very obvious. The only position we (traditionally) don't have to worry about is the Goalkeeper.
19:32 Correction: 90% of all tallented players from Brazil come from South east and south region Especially Sao Paulo and Rio de janiero
The focus on climate in this video is incredible. These things cannot be predicted with much accuracy at all, and climate based predictions of the last half century or so have a spotty track record at best. We are already 20-40 years passed the apocolypse approximations of climatologists of the 70s and 80s. There is good news in terms of climate when it comes to the Ozone layer and Antarctica, but of course that gets ignored, and the globe is only warming depending on when you start your measurements. Your starting point for whether or not earth is warming or not is critical to your conclusions
I don't think Germany's decline is permanent or even long lived. With 80mil people and the infrastructure they have new talents pop up all the time
They will comeback
The amount of effort you put into these videos is astounding.
The world is going to hell in a handbasket. Fortunately for me, I'll be long gone by then but I worry about my son.
I love the Japanese team. They're come out of nowhere to start picking big nations off. The amount of Japanese players in the Bundesliga is unprecedented. Mitoma for Brighton has been incredible. My team Liverpool bought Endo,
Germany seem to be completely fuct. This upcoming Euro's, if England don't win it'll all be down to Southgate. Personally, I'd rather the FA offer Pep or Jurgen 10m to take them into the tournament. You know that neither of them would mess up a change in tactics.
The world is "going to hell in a handbasket" for many reasons but how is international football becoming more competitive a bad thing? It seems to me that it's a rare positive.
@@Support-your-local-team he's obviously referring to the climate apocalypse part of the video
I hope the balance in Football also change in the top 5 Europe Leagues. Their SHOULD NOT be the same treats winning the leagues and hopefully that CHANGES
As an Indonesian it is such a shame to see such a football crazy population be wasted by our football association which is constantly being used as a political vehicle
I think Haiti Women National Team is becoming a world competitor. Even in women football , things are changing .
Over 80% of that Moroccan side were born in Spain, Belgium, Netherlands or France. The minority who were born in Morocco left and joined European academies.
Without those European countries and their youth systems, those North African sides wouldn’t have anywhere near as much success. It’s the same issue I have with Ireland and Wales, they rely heavily on England. It’s world football but really it’s still very much a reliance on specific European countries and their academies.
I'm not sure about Spain but Belgium, Netherlands and especially France have massively relied on their colonial past to produce talent. That's fine but when the flow of talent goes the away it's suddenly a problem?
England has hugely benefited not just from colonialism but from being the wealthiest country in the British Isles at the direct expense of smaller neighbours. When that movement of people from Ireland to England creates England internationals who wouldn't have otherwise been born in England like Kane, Rooney, Gerrard, Grealish, Rice it's fine but when Ireland call up fecking Callum Robinson and Clinton Morrison they're leeching?
You can be born anywhere, that's a variable. You know what's constant ? BLOOD. Wherever you are born you will always have your parent's blood.
Plus a lot of our key players are pure moroccan local products, like En-Nesyri, Bounou, Ounahi, Aguerd, Attiat-Allah...
@@Support-your-local-team That is utterly false mate.
You're essentially making note of the fact that England and France HAPPEN to have nationals with a non-native background and.........so what???
It's football, any fool with a pair of feet can play, having a certain background doesn't change that.
Your comments here are a little xenophobic and blatantly stupid and ignoring the simple reality that England, France and others can simply afford to play well regardless of demographic bollocks you're going on about.
So what if Great Britain, Spain and France had colonies in the past??? It's not different from others colonies from before so what's your point here???
@@mauratlantean3002 Yes but a good number of them are Europeans( born ) so clearly Morocco have benefitted from immigration which isn't a bad thing at all tbh. You Moroccans did well( I'd give credit to the coach rather than the players ) and that shouldn't be downplayed by dumb political rubbish.
@@EgoHead710 You've completely missed the point. I didn't say any of the demographic factors being discussed are negative or that there's anything wrong with people being from a "non-native background". I was responding to the OP saying smaller countries just rely on bigger ones to produce talent by pointing out that it goes both ways. My point was that colonisation has undoubtedly helped the colonising countries improve their talent pool so it's only fair that the colonised countries benefit in some way from it too.
Maybe next time actually read what someone has said before you accuse them or being xenophobic or talking bollocks. 🤡
It's good that the balance of power in world football is changing, it's been a long time coming but it's necessary and welcomed.
> Alaska's inevitable superteam
18-year-old Obed Vargas: "My time to shine!"
Calling Norway a "once superteam" is quite the overstatement imo
Didn't expect the surprise Peckham mention, big up SE15
Climate change , conflict geopolitics, migration crisis, etc are things I don’t want to think about because futbol is what I used to escape all that.
THANK YOU!!! None of this has anything to do with football, football just happens to exist in society but it's ENTERTAINMENT ONLY!!!!
Very interesting and well made video once again 👏🏽
To Gibraltas defence, they got a red card very early on. For a national team like Gibraltar, playing with 10 men on the pitch for 80 minutes agains a national team like France will always end in a total massacre.
Impeccable choice of images as always.
I am interested in the topic Alfie liked the most here: democracy and authoritarianism in football. People insist that football is non-political but it has hardly been the case.
*Dinamo Zagreb vs Red Star Belgrade in 1990* is now depicted as a struggle between Croatian democratic fighters vs autocratic Serbian rulers, at least in Croatia.
*Kazakhstan's move from AFC to UEFA in 2002* has been now seen as an attempt by a dictatorship to corrupt democratic Europe and there are also growing, though limited, campaigns demanding expulsion of Kazakhstan from UEFA due to Kazakhstan's lack in common support for democracy in Europe, while Asia is favourable to autocratic states. This is likely to keep growing due to Kazakhstan's support for Turkey and Azerbaijan and the deterioration of relations of both three Turkic states to other European nations.
*Argentine football during the junta era* was a mixed bag when Argentina won the first World Cup under a military junta that tried to refurbish image of Argentina's repressive human rights record and declining economy, which helped explaining why Argentina has been in an endless crisis.
*Iranian football quagmire since 1979* is a fascinating one because despite Iran's strong footballing prestige, Iran has failed to win any major trophy since 1976 and many Iranians have blamed the Islamic regime for this. Recently Iranians have expressed wary after Iran suffered a blowing comeback from Uzbekistan to drop two points.
*How Hitler and Mussolini used the Olympics and World Cup* in the early days when sports were just expanding.
Not disputing that the gap is diminishing but that is largely a result of increasing tactical sophistication. There is a global market for coaches and few countries object to having a foreign coach
The Euros will not be moving from 24 to 32 teams. UEFA already confirmed that.
yeah, until they change their mind
32 teams in Euro might be good, especially after this tournament had a notable absentees such as Norway and Sweden, but it also caused a lot of troubles. Players getting exhausted with this extended schedule and bigger teams could declined a lot.
@@ezraezra2928What is the point of a 32 team tournament in Europe when Europe has even barely that many countries? Thats's no longer a tournament, that's a league.
@@stefan5730 Even Asia and Africa didn't want 32-teams tournament because of the same factor. The Asian Cup and AFCON with 32 teams means it will be a half number of all members from AFC/CAF and they are quite mediocre than Europe.
@@ezraezra2928 it has more to do with qualifiers and how the general audience would lose (even more) interest in them. It's a big loss of TV money for UEFA.
Only European and south American teams have won the world cup and it doesn't look like changing any time soon.
@@badrm9175 I very must doubt it. The problem with African nations is too msny of their players end up playing for European teams. And Asian teams never have enough good players in one team.
@@badrm9175 why? They don't do any better than the rest of there continent does!
@@badrm9175 neither of them can compete with the rest of the world at the moment
If S.A and European teams keep winning then good, I'm only interested in the best, not everyone's favourite.
Tbf alot of the smaller nations are now using their diaspora alot more than use to ever be possible. Like even 20 years ago it was no where near as possible for Montserrat to fill their side with only English born players like what they do rn and thats the case across the board
This
Hi there, I'm a time traveller from 2123. The world cup champions in my era are Antarctica who just hosted their first World cup. England Scotland and Wales FC formerly known as Manchester City have just won the European Super League, The Earth Cup and the Interplanetary Champions League in a historic Treble but dark clouds hang over their victory as they're still under investigation for 115 FFP charges from 2008-2018 and may face a points deduction and Thiago Silva is still one of the best defenders in World Football.
As a very minor point I would suggest that the England team of Gerrard and Cole etc was not full or world class players, but top tier premier league players. There was, then, a big difference. Now, the England team has world class players but until the changes in grass roots training of English talent took hold I don't think any English grown player was world class. Club sides relied on the foreign players to add the needed class. English players had no tactical flexibility and the national team would inevitably resort to humping it long when the chips were down. Curiously this mentality can still be heard in British commentary, whenever a team is losing the suggestion from the ex pro co-coms is always to get the ball out wide and put some crosses in. If the team has been doing that then they are stumped.
There is no way rooney ,gerrard ,lampard and scholes could'nt be considered world class if the current team have world class players lmao.
As a brit I'd like to say a massive well done to Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Albania and others for a great qualifying... Luxembourg though 🙌
steady on, Luxembourg and Kazakhstan have yet to qualify, they still have the play-offs to go through (I wish all teams in the Play-offs well ). But Albania did well though, certainly well done to them.
Albania is deserved. Luxembourg has done an exceptional job. But Kazakhstan is a disgrace for being a sportswashing state. It's UEFA's decision in 2002 enabled despotic governments of Russia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to believe on using sports for politics.
Luxembourg and Kazakhstan have done exceptional regardless, I don't expect them to qualify and in regards to politics, notice how I didn't discredit the players and people of Kazakhstan because of politics... its not about politics in football , I can imagine there are players of working class nobility doing themselves and country very proud
@@benjeffery9958 I don't want Kazakhstan to qualify at all. What have we learnt from over two decades of Kazakhstan's sportswashing campaign to brainwash Europe that it can compete with it while at the same time, Kazakhs are left starved and repressed by the government? I was in Kazakhstan and I witnessed how dismal Kazakhstani football system is. Kazakhstan is not North Korea, but it should not be part of European football family. Europe should exclude countries with political tendencies out of UEFA, like how we did to Russia.
@@benjeffery9958 Well, most Kazakh players they are currently having, majority are based in Astana, which is funded by the authoritarian government of Nazarbayev and the current successor Tokayev from the oil wells in the Caspian Sea (source: Wikipedia). I think they have lived like kings while the people are poor or working-class, so basically Kazakhstan is a national team of the rich and corrupt elite.
Came for a video about football, left with existential anxiety
I have complete faith in Alaska becoming a soccer powerhouse. 🙏
Mark my words, but in the next 3 or 4 World Cups we will see a team from outside Europe and South America actually win. And it’ll probably be Japan, South Korea or Morocco at this rate
Do not underestimate the US also.
@@TosbeLeotrue, although I feel like the world would end if they ever won it 💀
Nah people overhyping Japan when they’ve beaten big teams many times before this
Japan maybe. Korea and Morocco 😂😂
Japan of 120 million people and one of their best teams cannot get past Croatia a country of barely 3 million. And they will win the world cup, I doubt. Korean is even further from thar, got trashed by one of the worst Brazil teams ever.
Make a video about Bulgarian football. It has changed a lot in the last 20-30 years
Video idea:
Philippines national football teams, both men and women. Explain their potential and short term strategies but failing long term prospects
It is true that Brazil' Germany' Italy' Netherlands etc don't have the star studded talent they once had i mean these days you could really only name 1 or 2 players that are genuinely world class while in the past those teams had world class talent everywhere where are all those players gone and why aren't they being produced at the same rate anymore
I would say the Netherlands still pretty star-packed, granted not as star-packed as it was in 2006-2014 but still quite good. Out of those 4 teams you mentioned, the Dutch are the only ones out of those 4 that have seen some actual form of recovery and definitely the best performing team out of those 4 (maybe Brazil - once they get a new manager). The Netherlands are still producing some fine footballers at quite a decent rate (maybe not as much as they used to but still decent), more so than the Italians for sure. There are a lot of Dutch players in the Premier League and many more promising young Dutch talent on the horizon, not so much in Italy or perhaps even Germany (though Germany still produce some very good footballers, especially midfielders, their defenders have been poor though and they haven't quite found a proper dedicated striker)
@@Frserthegreenengine
Germany got an All Star team and pure talent.
Wirtz or Musiala for example.
Nearly their whole line up is spiked with Champions League Winners.
Talent isnt the problem here. Its their lack of will and mentality.
Rudi Völler said that they lack on german values. Values which made us so strong. The pure will.
@@DrEcKiGeRDaN88 fair point. Germany isn't completely rubbish. They have brilliant midfielders but their defenders are really bad (Rüdiger perhaps being the sole exception). Like you say their lack of will and mentality is a big problem and morale is low.
I would also say their lack of a dedicated finisher is also problem, they simply have not found a reliable replacement for Miroslav Klose. Germany never lost a game in which Klose scored, kinda shows just how essential he was for Germany.
@@DrEcKiGeRDaN88Germany has no decent striker since Klose. I don't know what happened that Germany isn't capable of producing even a mediocre striker anymore.
@@stefan5730
Füllkrug isnt that bad.
Klose wasnt really successful on the club stage;)
As i've said. Its all an mental issue. But those kind of issues are harder to fix.
As always, the key to everything is money. Europe only has the best leagues in the world because it sold an idea of prestige to the rest of the world. once that fades, there’s no other reason besides money for players to move from their own countries. this dilemma happens for example in Mexico all the time, where young players prefer to stay at home because they’ll make just the same if not more staying home than moving to another continent. if leagues like brasil and argentina can figure out how to get more revenue then their players wouldn’t see a need to leave. After all, who would rather live in manchester or dortmund instead of Rio or Buenos Aires?
Europe has invented football so of course the best football is there. Even the south Americans have been introduced to football by Europeans.
@@stefan5730 It depends, the first time Europe played against a South American nation that no one could point on the map in an tournament they lost, the second time they also lost and the finalists were both South American, same goes for the first world cup (Uruguay/Argentina didn't participate in 1934/1938 as a sign of protest tho).
Throughout the 60's Brazil had the best club league actually, and up until the 90's South American clubs doubled their European counterparts on international trophies.
It all changed with the introduction of the "Bosman law", wich gave European clubs the chance to buy players from everywhere around the world and not only use locals from their own countries (+some foreigner spots), then only the teams with more money started to win while a lot of "historical" ones were forgotten to time, South America suffered a "talent exodus" that not only left their clubs in bad shape, but also left the national teams with the disadvantage of having certain players playing for Europe and others in local leagues (a problem that Europe doesn't really have), making it difficult to get a solid playstyle (like this Brazil for example, Brazilian players formed in Europe can't adapt to Diniz neo-"jogo bonito") and having an imbalance of power.
2:19 didn't expect to see my neighborhood show up in a HITC sevens documentary
One of your extremely well researched videos. I've been waiting for a topic like this on Football's World order.
Another good one, Alfie!!!!
Euro 2032 in Italia and Türkiye or Euro 2036 would probably be expanded from 24 teams to 32 teams.
Because we had just 3 tournaments with 24 nations and it's still too early to expand into 32 nations.
It needs to be 4, 5 or 6 tournaments of 24 nations like we already had 16 nations in 5 Euros, 24 nations in 4 World Cups and 32 nations in 7 World Cups.
I think that 2050 FIFA Nations World Cup would be expanded to 64 nations with 2 OFC guaranteed places and all COMNEBOL nations would had guaranted places.
Thanks for that big ol' ray of sunshine, Alfie.
Who else needs a drink or eight after that?
Next video: why is Italy unwilling to appoint a foreign coach. It can be a better idea Alfie.
Seriously I was stunned with reports that Italian national team is still rejecting the idea to be led by a foreigner despite ongoing football crisis. In the past when Spain was not strong, we even have a Hungarian (Ladislao Kubala) and an Argentine (Helenio Herrera) to take charge, while France even hired a Romanian to coach them and they left significant and positive impacts on the rises of Spain and France. Yet when I saw discussions and debates in Italy, there is an overwhelming opposition against a non-Italian to coach them despite the ongoing crisis of their football team (despite they used to be coach by an Englishman and a Hungarian). If Spain and France were too dumped in crisis, we would think of it too. What the hell is going on to these Italians?
Sadly. Authorities of the Italian football federation are very complicit and too lenient towards tackling racism in Italian football.
I have been to Italy in the past and I have to say that Italians are notoriously conservative and less open than other Western Europeans. Even Brazil, which is proud of their brilliant history, also come to term that they need a foreign expert this time around after a bad start in the WCQ (2W, 1D, 3L) under the interim Diniz and need improvement. But Italians keep living in the stone age of football and whenever they try to justify their consistent delusion of trusting local coaches, they insist "only Italians for Italian things".
Their recent decision to instead place hope yet again on locals (Luciano Spalletti for men's and Andrea Soncin for women's) is the exact evidence of this mentality. Italians are scared of foreign ideas, which is ironic when Italy was the birthplace of Renaissence. I guess they are telling themselves that their next World Cup since 2014 may have to occur in 2034 or 2038.
that might be interesting for a 5 minute video
Italians are very proud to be one of the western european teams that doesn't have lots of immigrants, for bettef or for worse
@@konradvonschnitzeldorf6506 Italy had a bad Euro 2024 campaign, almost eliminated by Ukraine and only survived at the last minutes. Italian coaches are too conservative and incapable to change, the Serie A is filled with outdated coaches and tactics. Those who are gaining successes (Ancelotti, Montella, Calzona, De Biasi or even as far as Nepal's Vincenzo Annese) is due to their willingness to change and abandon their country's old football school yet neither wish to coach Italy for this reason (even Ancelotti had secretly agreed to coach Brazil and had signed a contract). Meanwhile Spalletti has no gut to get rid of it while Mancini doesn't know how to solve.
Come for the football, stay for the existential crisis. great video
My niece is 14 and was scouted by a team, when i was her age my school didnt even had woman football practice...my 7 yrs old daughter loves her football training at school sadly if i contributed any of my football genes to her she will not go far.
Up until three years ago or so, women's football was practically non-existent in the major historical centers (Europe, Latin America, Africa), fobbed off as curiosity for North American girls or local obscure clubs. That has changed, and invstmenteg clubs has ratched up enormously. Not sure how I feel about that. My little neighborhood club was proud of their women's team, and doted and focused on them. Then the big clubs came overnight and poached all our players. The girls used to be our pride & joy, our club was synonymous with them, now they are just a minor subdivision of the same big old mega clubs (yawn). I am happy they have better facilities and resources, but they lost a bit of their identity and devoted fans in the process.
Im from south america, social mobility from football scholarships are way better compared to the pride and joy of a small team, i was a little bit above average in football as a teenager, nowhere near decent club level, people with my skills got scholarships, now that girls are getting picked up that path will be easy just like for males and im really happy for it @@KhalidCabrero
@@KhalidCabreroI think this is the biggest problem for the 'watchability' of women's club football. You basically see all the same teams that are present in the men's game, but here the big ones are even more dominant (just look at Barça's results in the league). Essentially instead of getting a different, refreshing product, new identities, new communities, new stories, you get the same thing all over again.
@@theultumateprezes6379 another thing is women's football is just not great as a sport. I hope it does develop but even if it does whos to say people wont still shun it bcs it's women or whatever
I don't think that's a huge factor. The Champions League or the World Cup final might provide supreme quality, but you can just as well enjoy a game of Polish Ekstraklasa or Football League 2. Identity, emotions and unexpectedness are imo just as important as sheer quality. And people already watch women's tennis.
Japan is looking amazing.
All this and still its European and south american countries winning wc
@ERICSEVENHAG56 I could see Japan winning 2026 wc
@@natoslayer2907 they can't even get past round of 16 chill out
@@natoslayer2907Yeah if only the asian nations play.
Yeah, that's why a Croatian team with Modric who is older than fire beat them.
As a Japanese, It took many years for Japanese football to develop.
Japan launched a professional league in 1993, later than other countries, and has established football schools all over the country to train youth, players, and coaches.
As a result, there are now over 100 Japanese players in European leagues, and the level of competition in the J League has improved dramatically.
It is an inevitable result that Japan is now able to compete on an equal footing with major countries in football.
On the other hand, there are many issues facing Asian football.
The biggest problem is that Asia is so vast and has so many people, and the level of competition varies greatly from country to country.
Additionally, Middle Eastern countries with oil money have a strong say and are distorting the regulations of the tournament.
For this reason, Japan has a plan to create a Pacific Rim football federation in cooperation with East Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and North America.
No, Germany has been in decline since 2018 when Korea shocked them. Spain just had terrible coach with no real striker. Pure luck
I don't think japan is great tbh
It's by far the most popular sport on the planet and it's popularity throughout the world continues to grow, so it's only natural that countries outside footballs heartland(Europe) become stronger.
The only mystery to myself is the lack of progress of the African nations, they actually seem to be going backwards in regards to their performance in the World Cup and they football the play is quite dour now, unlike the more flamboyant football they played 20-30 years ago
Full of good players but I don’t know about coaching
Because a lot of Africa's talent plays for European national teams. But that has hurt Germany since there's not as much of the traditional discipline in the Africans that play for them.
12:59 Wow I actually want a documentary about Lee Wai Tong, love from Hong Kong
15th Nov 2019 nz vs Ireland at Aviva 3-1 to Ireland
22nd Nov 2023 nz vs Ireland at Aviva 1-1
used to be the whipping boy of the west yet our most successful non-ofc oppnent is china with about 80% wins
Alfie should really consider being a Geography teacher😂Lovely video Alfie👌💯🐐
Thanks!
I'm a bit confused by the comparison of average age in Germany with median age in countries with younger populations. They're not the same metric. Other than that, great video as always!
Probably confused average as median rather than mean. Although they do actually measure the median age of populations as well.
Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 575)
I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored.
If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.
Europeans are just far too confident. They don’t realise that they won’t hold a monopoly on football forever. Things are changing
I think a lot of the players are just tired of playing as much. Especially if you have a tough campaign for the club, its difficult to motivate yourself for the 22627 meaningless Nationsleague game. All you get is potentially an injury that looses you the starting position in your club. The calendar just needs to go back to less games. Less Championsleague games, less national team games, less unnecessary games that just fill up calendars and then you will start seeing the quality of the games, especially in national squads improve.
Teams go through cycles.
who will then?
He says, in the video comment section of a video about exactly that subject, made by a European......
@@Tomsieyou sound mad bro
The Republic of Ireland will soon be minnows on the international football stage with the way the team is heading the future is not looking bright that's for sure
At least we just got that (somewhat meaningless) win against Denmark, not that it does much to put us ahead of you lol
In terms of conflicts related to climate change, as mentioned, many have proposed, already, that the Darfur war was largely the result of climate change.
id love to see a video that explains the unprecedented growth of the womens game that alfie mentioned
We live in a world where Israel, Kazakhstan and Luxembourg can still qualify for the Euro
Luxembourg makes sense at least, as they are in Europe.
Intersting as this is literally the opposite of what is happening to the club game. the club game is becoming more monopolised
Nice shout out to Luxembourg, much appreciated 🇱🇺
Take a look at Morocco’s team. The vast majority were born in Europe, and the only good native players left and joined European academies.
Bono (Atletico B)
Hakimi (CD Colonia Ofigevi, Getafe to (Real Madrid Castilla)
Saiss (Born in France)
Abdelhamid (Born in France)
Abqar (Malaga B)
Amrabat (Born in Netherlands)
Harit (Born in France)
Saibari (Born in Spain)
El Khannous (Born in Belgium)
Ounahi (Strasbourg B)
Bouchouari (Born in Belgium)
Ziyech (Born in Netherlands)
Tissoudali (Born in Netherlands)
Diop (Born in France)
Ezzalzouli (Hercules B)
En-Nesyri (Malaga B)
Adli (Born in France)
Boufal (Born in France)
Zaroury (Born in Belgium)
Idrissi (Born in Netherlands)
Cheddira (Born in Italy)
Aboukhlal (Born in Netherlands)
Salah (Born in Belgium)
Chair, Louza, Sabiri, El Azzouzi, Amallah and there’s still 8+ more I haven’t mentioned.
The next generation of Moroccan football will be almost completely foreign born.
Acctually we are investing in youth accademies here 🇲🇦 but let s be reel the quality of europe accademies are just better so we need to benefits from the europe players ( the still 🇲🇦 with 100% morocon parents and names ) and more investing in tte locals ,
Maturity is when you realize J LEAGUE is better then AL SAUDI
I mean Algeria and Morroco are literally staffing their teams with solely European born and/or educated player. Poaching them mostly when they are already full-grown adults. I would give more credit to the Japanese who actually played their own nationals who are fostered and identified themselves as Japanese.
Canada for example does have some immigrants in their team, but they moved to the country as children and have mostly lived under a Canadian system and cultured. If you have to import your entire squad based on the work of Europeans, are you really going to undermind Europe and South America?
imagine its 2018 and you take argentina as a "down going" football power (like many thougjt back then, incluing myself ill admit) ... football goes beyond money and the usual explanation of what is a sport : IT IS A WAY OF LIFE and that is the key my friend
Northern Fabio Silva with another interesting video.
Disrespect to the USA. We also got something semi-final of the first World Cup all being a different format.
The Faroe Islands have more men then that. A looot of young men from there lives in Denmark or Norway for opportunities. So thats why so few men are living in the Faroe Islands 4:01
Morocco, Japan, or Colombia could be the next first-time winner of the World Cup.
My ex lives in the Faroes.
I had the feeling that I could have played for them if I spent more time there, haha.
Diet Iceland.
Ur player argument is so bad. It is very much nostalgia based what r u talking about 😭 the Argentina World Cup team would’ve put 4 past that “world class” England team
One thing that will never change with all the constant change. Mexico never getting past the round of 16 or making a fool of themselves in general at the biggest stage
I fully believe that Mexico will eventually get their shit together and win a world cup in our lifetime.
Germany overtook Japan as the 3rd biggest economy, and Japan is now better at football
Squad depth will start beinh more important and not just number but quality in depth
12:39 HERTHA MENTIONED
I feel like an international tournament for only nations below 1mil population. Give us the battles between Gibraltar, San Marino, etc.
San Marino won a game; against Lichstestein, first win in 38 years There's hope for England ;)